My son was "sent" to work at LANL in Los Alamos by his PhD advisor. We bought a condo there and have fallen in love with the area. Thank you for sharing another side of the area.
It is a beautiful area, for sure. Thank you for being open to hearing another side of the stories that make up this area. Over the years I've lived here, I've gotten to know folks from the Pueblos who have been raising awareness of these issues and so it's hard for me to go there and not think about all of this as well. I appreciate your readership, Jan!
Thank you for sharing the experience of the Indigenous people in Los Alamos. I live in Hawaii, another land stolen from Indigenous people. In recent years, there has been a fight over building a second telescope on sacred land. The struggles continue for Indigenous people everywhere.
This film is being shown at an upcoming film festival in Los Alamos! Hopefully it will show a lot of residents on the Hill the other side of the story. I am excited to get to see it, friends saw it at the premier in Santa Fe and spoke very highly of it.
I saw it online in May when it was shown in conjunction with efforts of Downwinders, the Arms Control Association and the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction to get the RECA broughtup for a vote in the House. We failed, and now to make matters worse some Republicans are calling for a resumption of nuclear weapons testing.
Thanks, Maia. I can't wait to go back to New Mexico.
San Ildefonso - I love the black pottery recreated by Maria Martinez there. Members of the Naranjo family make it in Santa Clara. (My wife is a potter.)
A friend of mine here used to work at LANL. He's a vulcanoIogist - that's volcanos, nothing to do with Star Trek! I asked him why they needed a vulcanoIogist. It had to do with "safe" storage of nuclear waste, not triggering eruptions.
From the road north along the Cdorado out of Moab, you can see the tunnels of the uranium mines, among the many that are still poisoning the Navajo Nation.
Thank you for this thoughtful post! As a Los Alamos resident and as a local archivist, I am very very interested in the "other side" of the story. It's so important for the world and for my neighbors on the hill to hear from diverse voices and not just the party line coming from the lab.
I want to thank you for sharing this side of Los Alamos. (I remember Espanola well, too.) I didn't live there long, but my husband attended college at New Mexico Tech in Soccoro, then stayed to work and live in Los Alamos. He worked at LANL when we met, online in 2006. I was a grad student studying school counseling in Indiana then.
Ben bought a condo for us, but I only lived in it with him for about two months total. It saddens my heart as I write this, because I wish so much we still lived there. Why I'm telling you this is for a reason, and the reason is that I had a sense about the sacredness of the land while I lived there, but I was not privy to its history. My husband shared what he knew, and he carried (still carries) profound respect for the Indigenous peoples who are native to the area.
The dichotomy, for me, lies in the fact that he worked for LANL, which was his dream job after college. It's strange, especially knowing what I know about the atomic bomb and Oppenheimer project. How can one love the land and its native peoples but also accept the violence? I don't understand that part.
What I know now, especially after reading what you wrote here, is that there's something tugging at my heart to return to NM. I don't know how or when or why, but it's there. It's a nudge. Thank you for bringing it back to my heart again.
wow… yes! thanks for putting this on substack.
you're welcome -- thank you for taking time to read it, and watch the video.
My son was "sent" to work at LANL in Los Alamos by his PhD advisor. We bought a condo there and have fallen in love with the area. Thank you for sharing another side of the area.
It is a beautiful area, for sure. Thank you for being open to hearing another side of the stories that make up this area. Over the years I've lived here, I've gotten to know folks from the Pueblos who have been raising awareness of these issues and so it's hard for me to go there and not think about all of this as well. I appreciate your readership, Jan!
I felt at peace watching this video. So was Arya the Cockatiel.
Marian has a powerful presence, doesn't she?
Yes, I felt it in the video, a powerful calming presence.
Thank you for sharing the experience of the Indigenous people in Los Alamos. I live in Hawaii, another land stolen from Indigenous people. In recent years, there has been a fight over building a second telescope on sacred land. The struggles continue for Indigenous people everywhere.
Your readers might be interested in this movie
https://www.firstwebombednewmexico.com/
about the downwinders and their ongoing plight.
Thank you for mentioning this documentary, Stephen. Yes, another very important story to lift up.
This film is being shown at an upcoming film festival in Los Alamos! Hopefully it will show a lot of residents on the Hill the other side of the story. I am excited to get to see it, friends saw it at the premier in Santa Fe and spoke very highly of it.
I saw it online in May when it was shown in conjunction with efforts of Downwinders, the Arms Control Association and the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction to get the RECA broughtup for a vote in the House. We failed, and now to make matters worse some Republicans are calling for a resumption of nuclear weapons testing.
Incredibly well done, Maia. I so appreciate this postcard!!
Thanks, Maia. I can't wait to go back to New Mexico.
San Ildefonso - I love the black pottery recreated by Maria Martinez there. Members of the Naranjo family make it in Santa Clara. (My wife is a potter.)
A friend of mine here used to work at LANL. He's a vulcanoIogist - that's volcanos, nothing to do with Star Trek! I asked him why they needed a vulcanoIogist. It had to do with "safe" storage of nuclear waste, not triggering eruptions.
Thanks, too, for the video.
Yipes, safe storage from nuclear waste, with a volcano... that's a scary thought.
By the way, the elder woman in the top photo is Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, who is Maria Martinez's great grand daughter. She's also a potter.
Yes, I believe they’re storing it in salt formations near Carlsbad.
Wow, that is such a small world!
Oh yeah, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project WIPP. We know all about that.
Yes, that one. On my list of nuclear tourism destinations!
Not sure they’re gonna let you get close to that one! And not sure you’d want to either 🤢
https://stopforeverwipp.org/wipp-expansion
Admire from a distance, I think!
Amazingly, you can tour the Nevada test sites:
https://nnss.gov/community/monthly-community-public-tours/
From the road north along the Cdorado out of Moab, you can see the tunnels of the uranium mines, among the many that are still poisoning the Navajo Nation.
☢️
Thank you for this thoughtful post! As a Los Alamos resident and as a local archivist, I am very very interested in the "other side" of the story. It's so important for the world and for my neighbors on the hill to hear from diverse voices and not just the party line coming from the lab.
Thanks for posting this, Maia
Thanks for this view of
Los Alamos!
Maia,
I want to thank you for sharing this side of Los Alamos. (I remember Espanola well, too.) I didn't live there long, but my husband attended college at New Mexico Tech in Soccoro, then stayed to work and live in Los Alamos. He worked at LANL when we met, online in 2006. I was a grad student studying school counseling in Indiana then.
Ben bought a condo for us, but I only lived in it with him for about two months total. It saddens my heart as I write this, because I wish so much we still lived there. Why I'm telling you this is for a reason, and the reason is that I had a sense about the sacredness of the land while I lived there, but I was not privy to its history. My husband shared what he knew, and he carried (still carries) profound respect for the Indigenous peoples who are native to the area.
The dichotomy, for me, lies in the fact that he worked for LANL, which was his dream job after college. It's strange, especially knowing what I know about the atomic bomb and Oppenheimer project. How can one love the land and its native peoples but also accept the violence? I don't understand that part.
What I know now, especially after reading what you wrote here, is that there's something tugging at my heart to return to NM. I don't know how or when or why, but it's there. It's a nudge. Thank you for bringing it back to my heart again.